Design a Topology in the Planning Tool

[This is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases. This topic's current status is: Milestone-Ready]

Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-16

You can use the Planning Tool to design your topology. After exporting your topology design, you can then import it into Topology Builder to start your deployment process.

Note:
For this release, the Planning Tool functionality is not complete, so not all topology information required by Topology Builder can be imported and you must specify some of the information directly in Topology Builder. To ensure that you have the information required to specify all information required by Topology Builder, most of the Topology Builder procedures in this deployment document are based on using Topology Builder to define the topology. If you import a topology design from the Planning Tool, you will need to adjust the Topology Builder procedures accordingly.

Note:

For this release, the Planning Tool functionality is not complete, so not all topology information required by Topology Builder can be imported and you must specify some of the information directly in Topology Builder. To ensure that you have the information required to specify all information required by Topology Builder, most of the Topology Builder procedures in this deployment document are based on using Topology Builder to define the topology. If you import a topology design from the Planning Tool, you will need to adjust the Topology Builder procedures accordingly.

The following procedure describes how to use the Planning Tool to design and export the topology for your initial deployment. The procedure describes how to enable all features and functionality, although the deployment procedures in this documentation are based on deploying only core components initially and later adding server roles as they are needed. Using this deployment strategy means enabling only the core features (Web Conferencing and, if appropriate, A/V Conferencing) in the Planning Tool. This staged approach simplifies the initial deployment and facilitates troubleshooting of any problems with your initial deployment.

Important:
After you import your Planning Tool results into Topology Builder and start the deployment of Microsoft Communications Server 2010, any changes that you then make using the Planning Tool cannot be imported into Topology Builder. This means that server roles that you add later must be configured manually in Topology Builder.

To define a topology by using the Planning Tool

Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft Communications Server 2010, and then click Planning Tool.
On the Welcome page, click Get Started.
On the Audio and Video Conferencing page, click Yes to enable A/V conferencing.
On the Dial-in Conferencing page, click Yes to enable dial-in conferencing.
On the Web Conferencing page, click Yes to enable Web conferencing.
On the Enterprise Voice page, click Yes to enable Enterprise Voice.
On the Exchange Unified Messaging page, click Yes to enable use of Exchange Unified Messaging (UM) features to provide voice mail to Enterprise Voice users (if you have deployed or plan to deploy Microsoft Exchange Server).
On the Call Admission Control page, click Yes to use call admission control to provide bandwidth policy-based control for voice and video sessions.
On the Monitoring page, click Yes to enable call detail recording (CDR) and Quality of Experience (QOE) data collection and reporting.
On the Archiving page, click Yes to enable support for Archiving.
On the Federation page, to enable support for support for communication with external users, select both check boxes.
On the High Availability page, to enable support for high availability using an Enterprise Edition pool, click Yes.
On the Features Overview Completed page, click Design Sites.
On the Central Sites page, enter the Site Name, Domain Name, and Number of Users.
On the SIP Domain page, enter the SIP domains.
On the Voice Settings page, enter voice settings information.
On the Voice Infrastructure page, enter voice infrastructure information.
On the Exchange Unified Messaging Settings page, enter voice Exchange UM information.
On the Branch Offices page, enter branch office information.
On the Branch Office Network Connection page, select Yes.
On the Branch Office Gateways page, select Yes.
On the External User Access page, enter external user access information, and then click Finish.
On the Planning Tool … Finished Successfully page, click Draw.
On the Global Topology page, click the first-site icon.
In the Actions pane, click the View Site link.
On the First-Site page, click the Edge Network Diagram tab at the bottom of the first-site pane.
On the Edge Network Diagram tab, double-click to edit the fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) and IP addresses for all red-font and italic font items.
Enter information specific to your deployment, and then click OK. Repeat this step for all red-font/italic items. You can only change names and IP addresses in the Planning Tool. You cannot delete roles or change between single server and pool roles. For example, if the design includes a Director pool, but you know that you want to deploy only a single Director, double-click, and then click OK. You can make changes to this information in Topology Builder after you export your topology design and then import it into Topology Builder.
When all red-font/italic items have been edited, export your topology by clicking File, pointing to Export, and then clicking Export to Topology Builder.
To export the topology to an XML file that you can later import into Topology Builder, click File, point to Export, and then click Export to Topology Builder.
Navigate to a location, enter a name for the topology XML file, and then click Save.